We Are Golden
by writerchick786
Summary: After Worlds the Rock girls return home to begin training for 2012. As they enter a new stage in their lives, they will experience joy, sorrow, betrayal, love, and strength and will soon discover what they need to survive is each other. My version of S3
1. Chapter 1

Payson Keeler yawned and stretched under her blue duvet covers when she heard her iPhone ring. She sat up, reaching for her phone on the night table. She rubbed her eyes and checked the caller ID seeing the name "Kaylie Cruz" flash across the screen. She slid her thumb across the screen to unlock the phone and held it against her ear. "Right on schedule," she said with a smile. "Man, I don't even need an alarm clock with you."

Kaylie laughed on the other end. "Well then get out of bed, sleepyhead. I'm just ordered breakfast from Spruce Juice. I'll be at your house soon."

"Okay, see you soon," said Payson, hanging up the phone. She got out of bed and started calculating in her head how long it would take Kaylie to get to her house. Since Kaylie didn't like to tire herself out before they would actually start jogging, she would probably walk and she also still had to wait for their order at Spruce Juice to be ready, so Payson had at least 20 minutes before Kaylie would get to her place.

Her gym bag was already packed and ready to go with her metal water bottle, sleeveless leotard (it was _not_ fun to run in a leotard – no mater what people tried to say, it did not feel like wearing a swimsuit), a change of clothes to wear after practice and her various gym gear, like extra scrunchies, bar grips and bandages. Payson got changed out of her comfy flannel pajamas into black yoga pants, a black sports bra, a plain white t-shirt and her purple and red Rock jacket along with white socks and her white and purple running shoes.

She headed down the stairs to the kitchen, saying good morning to her mother who was sitting at the kitchen table with a mug of coffee and the Rock's accounting information in front of her. Kaylie had said she was bringing breakfast, so Payson just grabbed the lunch she had made the night before: a Tupperware container of a salad with field greens, sliced cucumber, chopped carrots, strips of red pepper and Asian Sesame dressing, a Ziploc bag of grapes and strawberries and a Healthy Bar. She packed everything into her lunch bag cooler, pausing to admire the Healthy Bar. She couldn't believe how far she had come. A mere four months before Worlds, she had been lying in a hospital bed with a back brace and yet here she was, on the wrapper of a protein bar that thousands of people bought and ate every day.

"Admiring your photo?" her mother asked.

Payson laughed and packed the Healthy Bar into her lunch bag and zipped it back up. "Yes, doesn't the camera just _love_ me?" she joked, packing her lunch bag into her gym bag.

Kim laughed. "Who would have thought that from one little endorsement, you would get so much media attention?"

It was true. The fact that she had just gotten back from a two-week long press tour made it even more obvious. Kaylie had also gotten the opportunity for a press tour but as Alex and Ronnie Cruz (Kaylie's parents who were back to being her manager and press agent) had told the press that Kaylie was recovering from her eating disorder at home so she mostly did her interviews and meetings with potential sponsors over the phone. Payson, however, had spent two weeks away, one in LA, one in NYC and it had been jam packed with the same interviews and meetings with potential sponsors as Kaylie's but in person rather than over the phone. To add to things, Payson also had a ton of photo shoots, talk show appearances and even a few times when she was on the red carpet. As difficult and grueling as training was, she would take Sasha's intense training regime over the two weeks of dealing with the press and media, any day.

After her second vault on her injured ankle at team finals (gymnasts in vault event finals like she and Kaylie had to do two vaults during team finals, whereas if you weren't in vault event finals, you only had to do one during team finals) that got everyone calling her "the next Keri Strug", the media attention had been intense and after she had competed in the all-around, it had intensified even more, if that was at all possible. Worlds had gone extremely well, not just for the USA and the Rock girls but also for herself as an individual athlete.

She and Kelly Parker had been amazing throughout the all-around competition, winning bronze and gold respectively. Ever since her back injury, Payson hadn't thought herself to be able to compete for an all-around during any competition, let alone for Worlds. Despite all of her insecurities, thanks to a shot of Cortisone to her injured ankle in the trainers room (she would never admit it to anyone but she'd had some flashbacks about 2011 Nationals and her back injury), she'd edged a hairs width in front of Genji Cho, scoring just 0.10 points more than Genji, who had an unfortunate step out of bounds on an otherwise perfect floor routine. Payson got the Bronze all-around medal and Gneji Cho got nothing.

Kelly Parker beat Ivanka Kirilenko by a huge margin after Ivanka's attempt to land a Produnova (a handspring double front salto vault) didn't go the way the Russian gymnast had been able to land it in prelims or in team finals. For the all-around, you only did one vault (even though you had to compete two if you were in vault event finals) and instead of going for the double twisting Yurchenko that she could land very consistently, Ivanka decided to go for the much harder, yet not very consistently landed second vault. Although the vault in question had a 7.1 D Score and was the hardest vault a female gymnast could do, if you didn't land on your feet, you got a big fat zero. Unfortunately for her, Ivanka landed on her ass, Kelly landed the Gold and Ivanka had to make do with Silver, something that she made very clear she was not happy with, calling her "silver" medal a "platinum" medal.

A gold for Kaylie in the vault event finals (Kaylie could probably stick an Amanar in her sleep by now and her laid out front handspring Rudi was almost as good as Alicia Sacramone's) and a bronze for Lauren in the beam event finals (she was much better than Payson cared to admit) and the USA had taken Worlds by storm, surprising everyone after that disastrous first day at the team competition.


	2. Chapter 2

**AlixM1234: **I was just so mad at how they cancelled MIOBI without them going to the Olympics, and I probably would have went from where they left off but I just wasn't that big of a fan of Season 3, so I decided to write my own version. Thanks for the comments, I hope my version is better than the "real" one lol

**BearyFunny66: **Glad you like it! Hope you like this next chapter!

**McCrazy for McDreamy: **Yeah, I went and edited that part, hope it makes more sense now. In reality, during team finals, even people doing vault finals only do one vault but I needed Payson's ankle to be injured and for her to have to do another vault on her injured ankle and although the way the show did it was wrong, I decided just to stick with that. I changed her first vault though. It was _way_ too easy. It was a "round off, half-on, front tuck" which only has a D score 4.6 and no self respecting world class gymnast would ever been doing it in competition. Let alone a team final lol.

**LBF: **I'm glad you liked it! I'm pretty sure you're the only IMDB-er who actually went and reviewed the story, so thank you!

**Grey'sFanAllTheWay: **She might be in the story but not in a gymnastics sense. Its just not possible that she could have a baby and still be competition ready. Plus, even if she had like a miscarriage or whatever, if Kaylie didn't think she could be able to not attend Worlds and still petition on to the Olympic team, Emily sure as hell wouldn't be able to. I might bring her back in some sense, like cheering for her friends, etc. but not with gymnastics.

**Pump it up:** Thanks! I'm hoping the later chapters are as good as the first one. Hope you enjoy this next chapter.

**manicinsomniac94: **Yes I am. As you can see, Chapter 2 is underneath! YAY!

* * *

Kaylie could see the Spruce Juice restaurant from across the street. She pressed the crosswalk button and leaned against the pole as she waited, her elbow resting parallel to her chin.

Cars whizzed by and she was vaguely aware of the normal noises of the city but still more focused on her thoughts. Kaylie had unfortunately only been able to compete on one event throughout Worlds. Despite the fact that she competed on floor for the team finals, only two girls per country were allowed to compete on each apparatus for the event finals and she couldn't take the opportunity away from Kelly or Payson. Thankfully she had been able to stick both landings on her two vaults and she walked away with a gold.

Kaylie would never admit this to anyone (not even Payson with whom she had grown so close) but she knew the only reason she had gotten gold was because Ivanka was so nervous after the all-around competition to even attempt the Produnova again and had switched her vault to a Tsukahara double. It was a very impressive vault, as was Ivanka's Yurchenko double. However, Kaylie's Amanar (essentially a Yurchenko double with an extra half twist) had a D score 0.7 points higher than Ivanka's and Kaylie's second vault (a front handspring Rudi) had a D score 0.3 points higher than Ivanka's second vault.

Although that only gave Kaylie a 1-point margin and Ivanka landed her Yurchenko double nearly perfectly (scoring a 9.5 on the execution), the fact that Ivanka hadn't done the Tsukahara double in competition since she obtained the Produnova made her landing very sloppy and that, along with a leg separation and the crossing over of her legs during her twist, cost her in the execution score.

Kaylie sighed slightly, drumming her hot pink painted fingernails against the cool metal of the pole. Everyone had been talking about how Kayla Williams and Alicia Sacramone had won the gold on vault in the past two years, and how awesome it was to have a "threepeat" with another American woman winning vault gold. Yet all Kaylie could think about was how hers was sheer dumb luck.

Sure, she had stuck her landings, only giving away the barest of hops on her Rudi, ramrod straight in the air, landing between the white lines, but if it wasn't for Ivanka's sloppy landing on her Tsukhara double, she would never have gotten the gold. Still she painted a smile on her face for the cameras and talked endlessly about what a thrill it was just to be at Worlds and how honored she was to follow in the footsteps of other great vaulters.

She had been so caught up in her thoughts that the sign changing from DON'T WALK to WALK and sound of the crosswalk beeps startled her and she nearly dropped her gym bag. She chuckled to herself and then crossed the street, making a beeline for the door of Spruce Juice.

Even though it was only about 5:15 in the morning, Spruce Juice was bustling with people. Of course it was, Kaylie thought to herself. It was midterm season and the University of Boulder Colorado was close to Spruce Juice. It would be full of students looking for breakfast after an all-nighter of studying and writing papers. That was why Leo couldn't come to Rio to watch her compete, because as a grad student doing a Masters in Physical Therapy, not only did he have exams and research proposals due, he also had to TA undergraduate courses so he had to mark a ton of assignments and essays as well as invigilate exams.

Kaylie waited in line and when it was finally her turn, she went up to the counter and ordered a skim milk strawberry banana smoothie for Payson and a low-fat vanilla chai soymilk blend for herself as well two whole-wheat egg white, lean turkey bacon, and non-fat cheddar breakfast wraps. After paying and tucking her wallet back into the side zippered pocket of her gym bag, she headed over to the side of the counter to wait for her order. She took her iPhone out of the pocket of her purple and red Rock hoodie and checked the time. 5:30. Time to call Payson.

"Right on schedule," said Payson, in lieu of a greeting. "Man I don't even need an alarm clock with you." Kaylie laughed and heard the rustling of Payson's duvet cover.

"Well then get out of bed, sleepyhead. I'm just ordered breakfast from Spruce Juice. I'll be at your house soon."

"See you soon," said Payson hanging up the phone.

Kaylie's phone vibrated with a text message. Her heart skipped a beat when she saw that it was from Austin Tucker, former 2008 gold medalist and her boyfriend.

_Hey beautiful. What are you up to? Want to meet at the Rock to go over some routines before practice?_ Kaylie really wanted to but she had seen Austin almost every day for the past two weeks. She had seen Lauren the week before she went on vacation and would see her at practice but today was the first time she and Payson would get back to doing their daily runs since Payson had gone on a two-week media tour immediately following Worlds. _Sorry babe. I'm going running with Payson and this is strictly Pay-and-Kay time. I'll see you at the gym during practice though okay?_

"Number 23?" the woman behind the counter said.

Kaylie checked her receipt and came forward, sliding her phone back into the pocket of her hoodie. "Yeah that's me!" she said, accepting the paper bag with the wraps in it and the cardboard cup holder with the two smoothies. "Thank you!" she said. She felt her phone vibrate against her hip but decided to check when she got to Payson's house. She knew it was a text from Austin and she didn't really feel like putting everything down to check her phone and then have to pick everything up again. Plus, if she texted him back again, she knew he would text her again and she'd have to do it all over again. Much better just to wait until practice to talk to him in person.

Her thoughts wandered yet again, on the 15 minute walk from Spruce Juice to Payson's town house. She loved Austin and wanted to spend every waking moment with him, but she had to remain realistic. With the Olympics so close, it was crunch time. She could not afford any setbacks, especially considering the 6 weeks she had to take off from training because of her eating disorder. She was going to make the team going to London and nothing was going to stop her from achieving that.


End file.
